Holding Out for a Hero
by bleedingx.xrose
Summary: Summary: All the guys are taken and Ino’s silly crush for Sasuke is over and done. Who’ll be Ino’s hero when trouble looms around the corner…? [Inox?]


Summary: All the guys are taken and Ino's silly crush for Sasuke is over and done. Who'll be Ino's hero when trouble looms around the corner…?

_Rating: K+_

**Holding Out For a Hero…**

_By: singleneko_

Ino Yamanaka sighed as she gazed at down in the grass. Her icy, blue eyes casting back over to watch the flowers move in a rhythmic wave with her hair. Or what was left of it. After the chunin exams, her hair still failed to grow back to the same length it had been before. Now it only reached to her shoulders when she let her hair out of the elastic band that held up her hair in its high ponytail. Not that she minded really. The boys weren't really bothering her anymore. She hugged her knees to her chest even tighter. All the…boys.

Ino rested her chin on her knees. She had come to a conclusion; she wanted, no, NEEDED a boyfriend, not because all her friends had a their own "special someone", but because she wanted someone to love, to save her in times of need, comfort her when she's down, someone to be HER hero. Now that she thought about it, all the guys were taken. There wasn't anyone left for her. Sasuke was still gone; Ino no longer cared for him, that insensitive jerk had left her best friend crying on a bench. Her brows furrowed.

"That bastard," she muttered, remembering how many times she saw Sakura crying in her window. But then Ino smiled. That had all ended when the great, emotionless, Kazekage had arrived and mended Ino's pink-haired friend's heart.

Hinata finally got Naruto, which Ino was extremely relieved. She finally got up the courage to tell him how in love she was with him, and he confessed a couple hours later, after they went out to eat and then made-out for 1 ½ hours. Hinata didn't stutter any more. Ino chuckled softly.

Her new close friend TenTen had, close before Hinata and the idiot got together, melted the Hyuuga's heart and often had to hold Neji back when Naruto so much as even touched Hinata.

Ino sighed in defeat and flopped down into the flowers. She closed her eyes for just a moment and then opened them again, revealing the clouds to her eyes. She thought for a moment. There were, in fact, a couple of guys left. But she wasn't interested. There was Chouji, who was more of a brother to her than anything! And Shino, but….he wasn't the affectionate type, really. And Kiba, but…it seemed he already had his eyes on a girl.

"Maybe, I wasn't made to have a boyfriend…" Ino muttered, before yawning and falling asleep on the bed of flowers.

**---------------------**

Ino's eyes fluttered open to the sound of a mosquito buzzing around her ear. She quickly flicked her wrist a couple times to get rid of the annoyance, then sat up and stretched out her arms. That was such a good nap, but why's her ceiling all purple and pink and…wait a minute. Ino's eyes widened as she looked at the sight before her.

"Oh my god! I fell asleep in the flower field! I'm gonna be late!" Ino tried to get up, but found herself unmoving when the sound of a stick breaking behind her echoed through her ears. She gasped and turned around quickly, swiftly moving to her feet.

"Hello?" she asked, looking around; fear shining in her eyes.

No response. She sighed of relief, must have been an animal or something. She yawned yet again before turning around and beginning to walk back to the streets of Konaha. Really…how could she be so afraid of a little noice? She nearly laughed at her antics. She was a chunin now, almost an ANBU once she took the tests. But she stopped dead in her tracks as she heard a deep voice behind her.

"Hello…Miss Ino," the unknown voice said.

Ino turned around and gasped, before screaming at the top of her lungs and running as fast as she could toward a little place called…Anywhere.

**------------**

The young chunin sighed lazily (A/N: keyword "lazily") from his spot on the hill. He looked towards the sky. Huh, the stars are coming out…

"Troublesome…" the chunin muttered before glancing back up at the sky.

Ino was supposed to be here by now. He furrowed her brows in a worried fashion. What if something-?

He couldn't finish his thought, when he heard an ear-piercing scream ring through his ears.

"Ino!" the man stated to himself, running toward the scream.

** With Ino **

"Get away from me!" Ino shouted, backing away from the man.

"Aw come on, Ino, don't be like that," the man tried reasoning with the blonde, stepping towards her some more.

"I said, GET AWAY FROM ME!" Ino screamed once again, turning around and attempting to run away, but ran smack into a muscular chest.

"Ino, you know I'm faster than that…" the man said, smirking.

"I don't want anything to do with you! Get…AWAY!" Ino screamed, fear turning into rage and pain.

"Aw, I already said I was sorry," the man stated with a sigh.

"Oh yeah! When!" Ino asked, crossing her arms across her chest.

The man held his chin and thought.

"Well, maybe I didn't 'tell' you I was sorry, but I can make it up to you," the man said seductively and forced his lips onto hers.

The girl's eyes widened and she immediately backed up, her lips quaking.

"You…I don't even like you anymore…" she said, her eyes becoming blank. "Why?"

"Why what?" the man asked, licking his lips.

"Why did you betray me? Betray Sakura, and the village, Sasuke?" Ino asked, tears nearly brimming her eyes.

"Psh. I could care less about that wide-fore headed freak…All I want is you Ino-_chan_," Sasuke said moving to her lips again, but instead of her lips, he came in contact with her fist.

"SHE LOVED YOU!" Ino screamed, crying now.

"So?" he asked coldly, looking at her.

"You're just like him…" Ino gasped, backing away, faster.

"Like who? _Orochimaru_?" he asked, letting the name roll off his tongue.

Ino looked closer, and moved a hand to her mouth. He was…Orochimaru. Said man swiftly appeared in front of her, a kunai in hand. The man, or shall we say, monster's features changed to the deadly appearance of the one and only, Orochimaru. Ino backed up to a tree, scared as hell.

"Now, it's your turn. Now you shall die like all the others…" the monster hissed, his words sending images of pain running through Ino's head.

Sasuke, Sakura, Gaara, Hinata, Naruto, Chouji, Kiba, Shino, all dead. Then she saw the last person she wanted to see laying dead on the floor…

"SHIKAMARUUUU!" Ino screamed as Orochimaru drove the kunai into her throat.

Ino's head shot up and came into contact with someone else's. Ino was panting, and hard, too. She looked around. The flower field…? Her confused thoughts were cut short when she heard a voice next to her.

"Jeez Ino that hurt," a voice grumbled.

As soon as the sound reached her ears, Ino pulled out a kunai and readied it next to the boy's throat. The boy froze and Ino went wide-eyed. A dream, no, a nightmare. It was all fake. Her fear-filled eyes softened a bit and she dropped her kunai knife. Her skin was glistening in sweat and her tear-stained face looked toward him. The man she had seen laying dead before her eyes.

"Ino, what's wrong? What happened to you? Did you have a nightm-…" Shikamaru's word was cut short when Ino tackled him to the ground.

"Shikamaru!" she cried and hugged him tightly, sobbing into his chest.

Shikamaru slowly wrapped his arms around the blonde-haired girl and 'shushed' her and gave reassuring words to her as he cradled her in his arms.

"You…and…Sasuke….and team…dead…and-"Ino's babbling was cut off by Shikamaru's fingers.

"It's okay; you don't have to tell me…" he said, smiling.

Ino continued to cry, but soon calmed down, sniffling occasionally. Shikamaru still held her in his arms, rocking her gently back and forth. Ino looked up at him and smiled at him.

"My hero…" she cooed and pressed her lips against his.

Shocked at fist, Shikamaru pulled away. But when he looked into Ino's eyes that were full of so much love and fear, he kissed her softly, Ino returning it. She finally found HER hero.

**A/N: what did you think? My second one shot! WHOOOT: ) remember to review!**


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